"CAUGHT" is officially based on a 1972 novel by Edward Pomerantz called "Into It," but I don't see how you can watch this picture and not see its real progenitor as

"The Postman Always Rings Twice." The setting's been moved from a California hamburger shack to a New Jersey fish store, but the song's the same: A transient enters the life of a working couple and begins a steamy affair with the woman, with unhappy results. But "Postman," a classic noir turn on the femme fatale, was merciless toward its principals, while "Caught" attempts the same story with compassion for the main characters. The result is neither a disaster nor an outstanding success.

Director Robert M. Young's work, like "Short Eyes" and

"Dominick and Eugene," is often rooted in social problems. The "Caught" material would seem more suited to a different, possibly more cynical, sensibility. The problem with playing it relatively straight is that a plot fueled by lust and betrayal is flattened out and loses its bite.

Joe (Edward James Olmos) and Betty (Maria Conchita Alonso) run a fish market in decaying Jersey City. A young drifter, Nick (Arie Verveen), stumbles into the shop one day. Betty quickly offers him a job as her husband's assistant, and Nick thinks he'll stay just long enough to fill his belly, then disappear. You know he won't. It's not as if Betty's looking for a lover, but she's not getting a whole lot out of her no-nonsense husband, and she misses her son, Danny (Steven Schub), who's in L.A. trying to break in as a comedian.

Nick earns Betty's undying gratitude when he convinces Joe to sell the shop to a developer. Joe has big plans that include Nick - who, as Joe rather incredibly doesn't realize, has become his wife's lover. Opposites attract, but this pairing asks a lot of the viewer. Nick's a smirky mumbler, not the usual target of affection by an Earth-mother type, even a tired, unappreciated one. When son Danny returns, he quickly sizes up the situation.

In his third collaboration with Young (the others are

"Alambrista!" and "The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez" ), Olmos cuts an appealing figure as the gruff husband who warms up to Nick and teaches him his trade. Alonso, too, does fine work; her portrayal of Betty's rebirth is touching and central to the picture. But it's Schub who's most remarkable. He's a nasty piece of work, a bitter, raging failure who sees his worst nightmares realized in the form of Nick. It's an impressive portrayal of a man wound up to the breaking point.

"Caught" devolves into a more run-of-the-mill, melodramatic piece than participants could have intended. Schub's Danny has the spark the film needs; he just arrives on the scene about one reel too late.